The number of new COVID-19 infections reported Thursday – 11,858 – is the highest total reported in a 24-hour period in all of 2021, according to data from state health officials.

The ruling gives the unions’ employees until Dec. 31 to get their first shot of one of the three approved COVID-19 vaccines, and until Jan. 31 to get the second dose of the Moderna or Pfizer BioNtech vaccines.

Dogs, cats, ferrets, rabbits, otters, hyenas and white-tailed deer are among the animals that have tested positive, in most cases after contracting it from infected people.

Visitors to the Garfield Park Conservatory have a rare and exciting opportunity to witness a plant in its spectacular death bloom as an agave prepares to flower for its first and last time.

“We’re gonna have to see what happens with omicron, but I do not expect that we will be making plans to move entirely remotely and certainly not for extended periods, even if that were a thing,” Dr. Allison Arwady said Thursday.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot did not purposefully conceal information about the handling of the February 2019 raid that left Anjanette Young handcuffed while naked and pleading for help, according to the results of a probe ordered by the mayor released Thursday.

“During my tenure as CEO, I failed at times to uphold McDonald’s values and fulfill certain of my responsibilities as a leader of the company,” Steve Easterbrook said in a prepared statement issued Thursday by McDonald’s. 

Wednesday saw record high temperatures across the region, wind gusts above 60 miles per hour and even the smell of smoke, which rode in on winds all the way from brush fires in Kansas.

The confidential settlement was announced after the sides met Wednesday with a mediator for the first time. 

Many immigrants dream of owning and operating a small business. A Chicago-based photographer has a personal understanding of immigration, and he has spent years documenting small businesses. He calls his project “Immigrant Owned,” and it’s about to be expanded in a big way.

A dramatic day at City Council. The latest from City Hall. Our Spotlight politics team breaks it all down. We’re learning more about the omicron variant. And a new effort to reduce opioid overdoses.

The city’s public health department has been distributing the tests since October to try and reduce the number of deaths due to the drug. The city has distributed somewhere between 14-1500 kits.

The Chicago City Council agreed Wednesday to pay $2.9 million to resolve the lawsuit brought by Anjanette Young after police officers handcuffed her while she was naked and ignored her pleas for help during a botched raid in February 2019.

Cabrini-Green residents were promised jobs and housing after its demolition. A new investigation from the Better Government Association reveals how those promises fell short.

The findings released Tuesday are preliminary and have not been peer-reviewed — the gold standard in scientific research — but they line up with other early data about omicron's behavior, including that it seems to be more easily transmitted.